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the_balticat t1_j9ghrcl wrote

I’ve been commuting between New York City and Baltimore for over three years. If you book Amtrak in advance (probably at least six weeks in advance, but it varies), you can almost always get a ticket for $29 or sometimes even less because they do have sales from time to time. Traveling near holidays can cost more but the key is to buy ahead of time. Bus is also an option. Wanderu.com is really handy for seeing options for bus and train in one place. Bus usually costs $25-$29, sometimes $40-50 if same day. I’ve taken the bus a few times and it wasn’t awful (I used Bolt Bus but they stopped coming to Baltimore, I think). One more thing, if you book your ticket through the Amtrak app, you can reschedule it on there if you need to. Even if you buy a basic ticket.

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spinoza844 t1_j9h4r6y wrote

How reliable do you find the different modes? I generally thought the train sucked less because it didn’t have highway congestion but I know there were two times I took Amtrak that had two hour delays. And I’ve only taken it like ten times!

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the_balticat t1_j9qz76c wrote

Amtrak does have delays sometimes but overall I’d say it is reliable. Most of the time the delays are minor (like 5-10 mins). In the ~3.5 years I’ve used Amtrak (usually one ride per week) I have had 2 or 3 major delays. One was due to a severe snow storm and in the other it was a summer storm that knocked a tree onto the tracks. The third time I can’t recall specifically. So I think you may have just had some bad luck. I always plan in some extra buffer (at least an hour) if I need to be sure I don’t miss something important at my destination

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spinoza844 t1_j9s5xky wrote

Yeah that sounds like bad luck. My two delays were 1) Somehow the electric engine they insert at Penn Station got messed up. And 2) Someone was unfortunately killed on the track by the train ahead of ours.

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